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PETER LUCAS: Patrick botches

Holocaust history

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
07/22/2014 06:32:06 AM EDT

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, flanked by religious leaders including Roman Catholic Cardinal Sean O'Malley, right, listens to a question at a news conference at the Statehouse on Friday in Boston, where he proposed two possible locations in Massachusetts to temporarily shelter unaccompanied children crossing the nation's southern border.
AP Photo/Boston Herald, Ted Fitzgerald

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If the venerable18th-century English essayist Samuel Johnson was correct when he famously said "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel," what would he have made of a man who takes refuge in patriotism and religion?

That would be Gov. Deval Patrick, who, with tears in his eyes, quoted scripture to make his case last week that his acceptance to house some 1,000 illegal-immigrant children at two sites in Massachusetts was based on "love of country and lessons of faith."

How can you top that? How can critics question a man who is tearfully both patriotic and religious at the same time, especially when he is flanked by American flags, as well as several religious leaders, including Cardinal Sean O'Malley?

With difficulty, that's how. As is his wont, the governor can be dazzling when it comes to subduing the press, as he did at his Statehouse so-called press conference Friday. He called to announce that the invasion of illegal immigrants at the southern border would spill over into Massachusetts.

It was one of Patrick's best performances. Even the dwindling number of hard-nosed Statehouse reporters were mesmerized and loath to ask Patrick, on the verge of sobbing outright, any tough questions. You wanted to hand him a handkerchief.

However, after a few softballs, the feisty Sharman Sachetti of Fox Television News, asked Patrick if it was easier for him to make the decision now that he was not a candidate for re-election.

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You might have thought that the reporter had just asked him how many of the unaccompanied children he planned to house at his multimillion-dollar, 77-acre estate, complete with swimming pool, in the bucolic town of Richmond in the Berkshires. The answer is none.

Patrick put on his well-practiced, silent, "How dare you ask me a question like that" stare, and said, "This isn't a political decision."

Most reporters would have openly scoffed, but the atmosphere was too churchlike for scoffing, given that everybody who spoke quoted from the Bible. Yet, everything Patrick does is political. He is a politician. He holds a political office. And he posted his remarks on his fundraising Together PAC.

But, upon his words, the room, packed with Patrick supporters, broke into loud and sustained applause, and Patrick beamed.

It would be dishonest to call the governor's meetings with reporters press conferences. They are not. They are political rallies where the governor performs. Patrick stacks the house. His people at these events vastly outnumber the reporters covering them. The governor routinely packs the room to overflowing with campaigners, activists, actors and aides who are guaranteed to applaud the governor on cue.

Under the circumstances, it is understandable that few tough questions, like Sachetti's, even get asked.

Another question, under past press-conference protocol, would have dealt with Patrick's distortion of World War II Holocaust history.

Patrick has claimed that "many" of the 900 Jewish "children" who were denied access to the United States in 1939 were later murdered in Nazi death camps. He compared the current situation to the Holocaust.

Upon welcoming the unattended children from Central America arriving illegally into the U.S., Patrick said, "My inclination is to remember what happened when a ship full of Jewish children tried to come to the United states in 1939 and the United States turned them away, and many of them went to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps." He said that was "a blot on our conscience and not consistent with the character of this country."

The outrageous implication is that something similar would happen to the children of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, if they were returned to their parents. Nazi death camps in Managua -- who knew?

That aside, the German ocean liner St. Louis that was turned away from Havana and then the U.S. on June 6, 1939, was made up of 938 passengers. They were mostly adult German Jewish families, not just children, fleeing the Nazis.

The ship sailed back to Europe, but the passengers did not return to Germany. They were dispersed to other European countries. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jewish organizations negotiated with four European countries to secure entry visas for them. Great Britain took 288 passengers, the Netherlands admitted 181, Belgium took 214 and 224 found temporary relief in France. A few had gotten ashore in Havana.

According to the museum, 532 refugees were trapped when the Germans conquered Western Europe. Just over half of them survived, while 254 died in Nazi captivity.

It would be helpful on such an important matter if the governor knew what he was talking about, and not just showboating.

Peter Lucas' political column appears Tuesday and Friday. Email him at luke1985@aol.com.

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